New Delhi:
N Sriram Balaji played a solid game throughout to become the new national champion and earn a wild card for the 2016 Delhi Open as he beat Vishnu Vardhan in the final of the Fenesta Open, the national hard court tennis championship, here today.
Playing the national championship after six years, top seeded Balaji defeated defending champion and second seed Vardhan 7-5 6-3 in the final at R K Khanna Tennis stadium.
It was double delight for Balaji as he had won the men’s doubles title, too, with partner V M Ranjeet.
Prerna Bhambri though defended her women’s singles title with an overwhelming 6-0 6-1 win over Samitha Sai Chamarthi and earned a wild card for USD 25,000 ITF women event in Delhi Open.
B R Nikshep won the Boys (Under-18) title with a hard-fought 6-3 2-6 7-5 win over Aryan Goveas. Niskhep got wild card for the Delhi Open Qualifiers.
Zeel Desai won the Girls singles title, defeating Satwika Sama 3-6 6-3 7-5 in the final.
Both Balaji and Vardhan served extremely well in the first set but a break of serve in the 12th for the latter changed the complexion of the match.
Everything that Balaji did today clicked. His drop shot, lob, service - everything fell into place. He himself stayed mostly at the baseline and did not allow Vardhan to come on to net much. Even if Vardhan tried, Balaji came up with such returns, on both flanks, that Vardhan did not risk points by again rushing to net for volleys.
Vardhan was chasing all the time as the first went on to serve till the 11th game. Serving to stretch it to tie-breaker, Vardhan came to net but Balaji played a ferocious and unreachable backhand on left of Vardhan. A double fault put Vardhan down 0-30.
The defending champion again approached the net but found the same result - an unreachable return from Balaji. This put Vardhan down by a set point but served well to save it. A double fault by Vardhan handed Balaji his second set point, which was converted when his opponent made an error.
